Saturday, January 11, 2014

The website of Ignatius Press is now listing for pre-order the proceedings of the Sacra Liturgia 2013 Conference, which took place this past summer in Rome. Our own Jeffrey Tucker was one of the speakers; you can re-read some of his reportage on the event here, and check out the photos via the link in this post. Our good friend Fr. Christopher Smith wrote an excellent account of the conference over at Chant Café.

From Ignatius' website:
"The Sacred Liturgy is not a hobby for specialists. It is central to all
our endeavors as disciples of Jesus Christ. This profound reality
cannot be over emphasized. We must recognize the primacy of grace in our
Christian life and work, and we must respect the reality that in this
life the optimal encounter with Christ is in the Sacred Liturgy."

With these words Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon, France, opened Sacra Liturgia 2013,
an international conference in which he brought together over twenty
leading liturgists, cardinals, bishops and other scholars from around
the world to emphasize the centrality of liturgical formation and
celebration in the life and mission of the Church. "The New
Evangelization must be founded on the faithful and fruitful celebration
of the Sacred Liturgy as given to us by the Church in her tradition -
Western and Eastern," Bishop Rey asserted.

Sacra Liturgia 2013 - the proceedings of which this book publishes - explored questions of liturgical art, architecture, music, the ars celebrandi,
the importance of ritual in human psychology, truly pastoral liturgy,
the place of the older liturgical rites in the New Evangelization,
liturgical formation, liturgical law, the role of the diocesan bishop in
respect of the liturgy, and more.

Sacred Liturgy - The Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church
is an important resource in ongoing liturgical formation for clergy,
religious and laity, and makes a significant contribution to that
renewal promoted in the Pontificate of Benedict XVI. That is the
renewal which embraces the riches of liturgical tradition as valuable
treasures, seeks to read the Second Vatican Council according to a
hermeneutic of continuity, not rupture, and is in no doubt that, as
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger once wrote, "the true celebration of the
Sacred Liturgy as the center of any renewal of the Church."